Category: Zookeys

Undergraduate student takes to Twitter to expose illegal release of alien fish in Japan

Posing a significant threat to the native biodiversity in Japan, specifically that of threatened aquatic insects, some alien fishes, such as the bluegill, have become the reason for strict prohibitions. All activities potentially capable of introducing the species into the wild are currently punishable by either a fine of up to 3 million yen for a person (100 million yen for corporations), or a prison sentence of up to 3 years.

Recently, ten years after the law has been adopted, illegal release of bluegill fish has been reported for the first time with the help of a post on Twitter from Akinori Teramura, undergraduate student at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology and second author of the present study. The case is reported and discussed by him and two scientists, affiliated with Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History, Japan, in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

In June 2015, Akinori Teramura tweeted two photographs of the invasive bluegill fish, both adults and juveniles, along with two young goldfish, which do not belong to the local fauna, either. In his post he identified the species and shared his surprise at the irresponsibility of the people who had released the fish. When lead author Dr Yusuke Miyazaki saw the tweet, he signalled his colleagues with the idea to publish the information as a scientific report.

The student found them in an outdoor public pool in Yokohama city, Japan, while it was being cleaned before being opened ahead of the summer. Usually, these facilities are closed to the public during the colder seasons and it is then when native aquatic insect species, such as dragonflies and diving beetles, find spawning and nursery habitats in them. Curiously enough, though, the pool had been isolated from natural waters since its construction.

7577_ZK_Data-mining and Twitter img3

Therefore, the researchers conclude that the alien fishes have most likely been released from an aquarium from a local shop or an aquarist who no longer wanted them. However, the authors note that according to the law, keeping bluegill fish in a home aquarium is illegal as well.

“Our report demonstrates an example of web data mining in the discipline of Citizen Science,” say the authors. “Web data mining has been rapidly developing over recent years, and its potential continues to expand.”

“Community awareness of this issue needs to be improved, and widespread reporting of cases such as this one will help,” they conclude.

###

Original source:

 

Miyazaki Y, Teramura A, Senou H (2016) Biodiversity data mining from Argus-eyed citizens: the first illegal introduction record of Lepomis macrochirus macrochirus Rafinesque, 1819 in Japan based on Twitter information. ZooKeys 569: 123-133. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.569.7577

Hard soft coral: New genus and species of ‘living fossil’ octocoral related to blue coral

Research conducted in Okinawa, Japan, by graduate student Yu Miyazaki and associate professor James Davis Reimer from the University of the Ryukyus has found a very unusual new species of octocoral from a shallow coral reef in Okinawa, Japan. The new species can be considered a “living fossil”, and is related in many ways to the unusual blue coral. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Unlike scleractinians, most octocorals lack a hard skeleton, and therefore many have the common name “soft coral”. One exception is the endangered genus Heliopora, known as blue coral, which is found in tropical locations in the Pacific Ocean.

Blue coral forms a massive skeleton of aragonite calcium-carbonate. Due to this unique feature, blue corals have long been placed within their own special order inside the octocorals.

This new species, named Nanipora kamurai, also has an aragonite calcium-carbonate skeleton, and molecular analyses show the two groups are most closely related to each other among all octocorals. As fossils show that blue coral and their relatives were globally distributed during the Cretaceous period, Heliopora and this new species can be considered “living fossils”.

In the past, another octocoral species with an aragonite skeleton, Epiphaxum, was discovered in 1977. Since 1977, several recent and fossil Epiphaxum specimens from the deep sea have been recorded. Although this new species seems to be morphologically close to Epiphaxum, it is classified in a separate genus inside the same family (Lithotelestidae) due to many structural differences.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Nanipora kamurai was found from a very shallow coral reef of <1 m depth.

“Most living fossils from the ocean seem to come from deeper, more stable environments” stated Miyazaki, “suggesting that there are important discoveries on coral reefs even in shallow areas still awaiting us.”

“The diverse and pristine reefs of Zamami Island, which was recently included in a new national park, need to be investigated even more”, he added.

The discovery of this species undoubtedly will give new insight on octocoral taxonomy.

###

Original source:

Miyazaki Y, Reimer JD (2015) A new genus and species of octocoral with aragonite calcium-carbonate skeleton (Octocorallia, Helioporacea) from Okinawa, Japan. ZooKeys 511: 1-23. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.511.9432

A centipede from hell

An international team of scientists has discovered the deepest underground dwelling centipede. The animal was found by members of the Croatian Biospeleological Society in three caves in Velebit Mts, Croatia. Recorded as deep as -1100 m the new species was named Geophilus hadesi, after Hades, the God of the Underworld in the Greek Mythology. The research was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Lurking in the dark vaults of some of the world’s deepest caves, the Hades centipede has also had its name picked to pair another underground-dwelling relative named after Persephone, the queen of the underworld.

Centipedes are carnivores that feed on other invertebrate animals. They are common cave inhabitants but members of this particular order, called geophilomorphs, usually find shelter there only occasionally. Species with an entire life cycle confined to cave environments are exceptionally rare in the group.

In fact, so far the Hades and Persephone centipedes are the only two geophilomorphs that have adapted to live exclusively in caves, thus rightfully bearing the titles of a queen and king of the underworld.

Like most cave-dwellers, the newly discovered centipede shows unusual traits, some of which commonly found in cave-dwelling arthropods, including much elongated antennae, trunk segments and leg claws. Equipped with powerful jaws bearing poison glands and long curved claws allowing to grasp and tightly hold its prey, the Hades centipede is among the top predators crawling in the darkness of the cave.

The new species is yet another addition to the astonishing cave critters that live in the Velebit, a mountain that stretches over 145 km in the Croatian Dinaric Karst, which is as a whole considered a hot spot of subterranean diversity. The deepest record comes from the Lukina jama – Trojama cave system, which is 1431 meters deep and is currently ranked the 15th deepest cave in the world.

Just like Hades who ruled over the kingdom of shadows, the new centipede dwells among an extraordinary number of pallid cavernicolous animals, some known to science and many yet to be discovered.

“When I first saw the animal and its striking appearance, I immediately realized that this is a new, hitherto unnamed and highly adapted to cave environment species. This finding comes to prove once again how little we know about the life in caves, where even in the best prospected areas, one can still find incredible animals” says the lead author Pavel Stoev, Pensoft Publishers and National Museum of Natural History, Sofia.

###

Original Source:

Stoev P, Akkari N, Komerički A, Edgecombe GD, Bonato L (2015) At the end of the rope:Geophilus hadesi sp. n. – the world’s deepest cave-dwelling centipede (Chilopoda, Geophilomorpha, Geophilidae). In: Tuf IH, Tajovský K (Eds) Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Myriapodology, Olomouc, Czech Republic. ZooKeys 510: 95-114. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.510.9614

500 issues of ZooKeys: Non-stop innovations in service to the taxonomic community

Today, on the 27th of April 2015 ZooKeys published its jubilee 500th issue. Launched to accelerate the research and free information exchange in all disciplines of the zoological science, the open access journal ZooKeys had stuck to its mission with altogether 2436 articles and 65942 pages published since its start in July 2008.

Over the last two years, ZooKeys continued to increase its role in taxonomy sustained by implementing new publication models and technologies. In a race with the rapid destruction of ecosystems on the planet, the journal is seen as the best venue for describing the world’s biodiversity at a fast pace.

 

ZooKeys made its way to the top 10 journals publishing the greatest number of new taxa in Zoology reaching currently a second place in Thomson Reuters’ Index of Organism names right after Zootaxa. Our publications account for 5.55% of all newly described animal taxa from 2010 downwards.

 

But with ZooKeys it is not only about quantity. From its inception of 2008 ZooKeys has aimed to be a pioneer of innovation. It was the first journal ever to:

 

  • Implement semantic tagging and enhancements of taxonomic articles (since ZooKeys 50, 2010);

  • Gather real time information about any taxon name  from the Web at the click of a button via the Pensoft Taxon Profile (PTP);

  • Automate export of species descriptions and other taxon treatments to data aggregators (EOL, Plazi, Species ID) on the day of publication;

  • Simultaneously map published occurrence records by selection of all or some taxon treatments;

  • Convert taxon treatments into Wiki versions on Species-ID;

  • Introduce data publishing in taxonomy and elaborate the data paper concept and workflow together with GBIF;

  • Develop a concept of publishing of online identification keys and biodiversity software descriptions;

  • Implement the TaxPub schema (developed by Plazi) and archive all taxonomic content in PubMedCentral;

  • Mandatory register all new taxa in ZooBank and automate the whole registration process via software tool since 2013 (together with ZooBank);

  • Put special effort in PR and promotion for taxonomy and biodiversity informatics.

 

500 issues onwards ZooKeys is determined to continue the provision of a high-quality innovative publishing solutions!

Original Source:

Erwin T, Stoev P, Georgiev T, Penev L (2015) ZooKeys 500: traditions and innovations hand-in-hand servicing our taxonomic community! ZooKeys 500: 1–8. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.500.9844


 

First find of its kind in more than 3 decades: The adorable Olinguito

Observed in the wild, tucked away in museum collections, and even exhibited in zoos around the world; there is one mysterious creature that has been a victim of mistaken identity for more than 100 years.

Observed in the wild, tucked away in museum collections, and even exhibited in zoos around the world; there is one mysterious creature that has been a victim of mistaken identity for more than 100 years.

A team of Smithsonian scientists, however, uncovered overlooked museum specimens of this remarkable animal, which took them on a journey from museum cabinets in Chicago to cloud forests in South America to genetics labs in Washington, D.C. The result: the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina); the first carnivore species to be discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years.

The team’s discovery is published in the Aug. 15 issue of the open-access scholarly journal ZooKeys.

The olinguito (oh-lin-GHEE-toe) looks like a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear. It is actually the latest scientifically documented member of the family Procyonidae, which it shares with raccoons, coatis, kinkajous and olingos. The 2-pound olinguito, with its large eyes and woolly orange-brown fur, is native to the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador, as its scientific name, “neblina” (Spanish for “fog”), hints.

In addition to being the latest described member of its family, another distinction the olinguito holds is that it is the newest species in the order Carnivora; an incredibly rare discovery in the 21st century.

“The discovery of the olinguito shows us that the world is not yet completely explored, its most basic secrets not yet revealed. If new carnivores can still be found, what other surprises await us? So many of the world’s species are not yet known to science. Documenting them is the first step toward understanding the full richness and diversity of life on Earth,”

said Kristofer Helgen, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and leader of the team reporting the new discovery.

Discovering a new species of carnivore, however, does not happen overnight. This one took a decade, and was not the project’s original goal; completing the first comprehensive study of olingos, several species of tree-living carnivores in the genus Bassaricyon, was.

Helgen’s team wanted to understand how many olingo species should be recognized and how these species are distributed; issues that had long been unclear to scientists. Unexpectedly, the team’s close examination of more than 95 percent of the world’s olingo specimens in museums, along with DNA testing and the review of historic field data, revealed existence of the olinguito, a previously undescribed species.

The first clue came to Helgen from the olinguito’s teeth and skull, which were smaller and differently shaped than those of olingos. Examining museum skins revealed that this new species was also smaller overall with a longer and denser coat; field records showed that it occurred in a unique area of the northern Andes Mountains at 5,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level; elevations much higher than the known species of olingo. This information, however, was coming from overlooked olinguito specimens collected in the early 20th century. The question Helgen and his team wanted to answer next was: Does the olinguito still exist in the wild?

To answer that question, Helgen called on Roland Kays, director of the Biodiversity and Earth Observation Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, to help organize a field expedition.

The team had a lucky break that started with a camcorder video. With confirmation of the olinguito’s existence via a few seconds of grainy video shot by their colleague Miguel Pinto, a zoologist in Ecuador, Helgen and Kays set off on a three-week expedition to find the animal themselves. Working with Pinto, they found olinguitos in a forest on the western slopes of the Andes, and spent their days documenting what they could about the animal&;its characteristics and its forest home. Because the olinguito was new to science, it was imperative for the scientists to record every aspect of the animal. They learned that the olinguito is mostly active at night, is mainly a fruit eater, rarely comes out of the trees and has one baby at a time.

In addition to body features and behavior, the team made special note of the olinguito’s cloud forest Andean habitat, which is under heavy pressure of human development. The team estimated that 42 percent of historic olinguito habitat has already been converted to agriculture or urban areas.

“The cloud forests of the Andes are a world unto themselves, filled with many species found nowhere else, many of them threatened or endangered. We hope that the olinguito can serve as an ambassador species for the cloud forests of Ecuador and Colombia, to bring the world’s attention to these critical habitats,”

Helgen said.

***

Original Source:

Helgen KM, Pinto CM, Kays R, Helgen LE, Tsuchiya MTN, Quinn A, Wilson DE, Maldonado JE (2013) Taxonomic revision of the olingos (Bassaricyon), with description of a new species, the Olinguito. ZooKeys 324: 1. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.324.5827

***

Follow the ZooKeys journal on Twitter and Facebook.